At the time many Ghanaians are struggling to make ends meet, Members of Parliament (MPs) have been granted over one hundred percent pay rise. The MPs, whose salaries hover around GH�3,000, are now to receive a whopping GH�7,200 a month, about �72 million (old currency).
Somewhere last year, the MPs threatened to show the government by rejecting the budget statement if nothing was done about their salaries. Their threat forced the late President Atta Mills to hold a meeting with them at the Castle, before he later proceeded to Parliament to deliver his State of the Nation Address.
Details of what they discussed at the said meeting were not made public, but 'The Chronicle' gathered at the time that the MPs were not happy with their take home pay, and wanted immediate adjustment.
President Mills promised to address their concerns, but no report was made public, before his sudden demise on July this year. The Chronicle gathered that the new pay for the MPs was recommended by the Professor Ewurama Addy Committee, which was set up by the late President Mills to review salary and emoluments of all Article 71 office holders. This includes the executive, judiciary and MPs among others.
Since the current administration assumed office in 2009, the committee also recommended that the new salary should take retrospective effect from January 2009. This means that each MP, apart from other fringe benefits, would earn about GH�345,600 at the end of their tenure of office. This translates into �3.456 billion (old currency).
All efforts by The Chronicle to contact John Kugblenu, head of the Public Affairs Department of Parliament, for his comment on the issues, proved futile, as he failed to pick the calls.
Meanwhile, the founding President of IMANI Centre for Policy Education, Mr. Franklyn Cudjoe, has protested against the hike in salaries for the MPs.
Speaking in a telephone interview with The Chronicle yesterday, Cudjoe argued that the new pay was nearly five times the annual per capita income of Ghana.�It is also six times the annual average or median income in Ghana. Compare that to the UK, where the average monthly salary is �5,500, or about $8,300 a month, which is LESS than one-fourth of the annual per capita income in the UK. So comparatively, in accordance with the strength of their economies, Ghanaian MPs are paid 20 times better than their UK compatriots,� he said.
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